When I was in school they didn't make us shower at all. The showers were there but I don't think were regularly used.

Never got nude at school. Nope.

The choice was yours in my school if you wanted to you could. It would depend on how sweaty I got and my gym periods were at the end of the day so I could just go home and shower but yes I did shower after gym class sometimes.

When I was in high school, we only had to take them for pool class (in order to go into the pool area.) Beyond that, it was totally optional. Wasn't required for any other P.E. class, nor was it even a requirement to shower after pool. Although most of us did just to wash off the chlorine. In the meantime, however, none of the guys ever got naked in the showers. Everyone wore their trunks. There was this one time, though, that a European exchange student took a shower totally nude. One of the guys came out of the shower area laughing about how he was in there naked. I guess where he was from total nudity in community showers was the norm.

Chris wrote:

When I was in high school, we only had to take them for pool class (in order to go into the pool area.) Beyond that, it was totally optional. Wasn't required for any other P.E. class, nor was it even a requirement to shower after pool. Although most of us did just to wash off the chlorine. In the meantime, however, none of the guys ever got naked in the showers. Everyone wore their trunks. There was this one time, though, that a European exchange student took a shower totally nude. One of the guys came out of the shower area laughing about how he was in there naked. I guess where he was from total nudity in community showers was the norm.

Europeans are definetly more open then puritanical Americans.

Pool is the only class that allotted shower time....I don't think any of the other PE's did. I wouldn't have anyway. We didn't really work up THAT much of a sweat to have an Any Given Sunday locker room scene.

Never. As has been mentioned already, none of the PE classes I was unable to get out of taking were really grueling enough to warrant bathing afterwards. You need a shower after playing in door Volleyball? They would give us about five minutes to change in and out of our gym clothes, but showering was not necessary.

The showers always seemed to be there more for decoration than anything, though I'm sure they got used after football games and stuff like that. But aside from swim class, nope, no showering, and even then no one was bold enough to do it butt nekkid.

In middle and high school where I went, we had gyms with boys and girls showering rooms but no one ever took them and they looked like they hadn't be used in a long time. I graduated in 2001. When they rebuilt my high school (my sophomore year) I don't think they included them for regular students that take PE, just athletes.

Tony Marino wrote:

Europeans are definetly more open then puritanical Americans.

Maybe, or maybe not.

I never had to take them in any school setting(Thank God), although I've written some fiction about those who do. IMO, I don't like the idea of forcing it, especially if the gym teacher is gonna watch. Although the beach we go to has showers and we always used them.(Well, I stopped when I got older for the most part but as a kid I sort of was forced to go in so I guess it counts somewhat) Just about everyone who used them was stark naked and there was only 1 stall for the handicapped so you do it in front of everybody. And those taking the showers range from little tykes to old wrinkley geezers. IDK, it's kind of creepy now that I think about it. Glad I hide in the changing stalls. I imagine showering with peers the same age wouldn't be as bad/awkward as being naked in the same room with little kids or old men.

When I was school, we never showered for PE. They'd give us about five minutes to change in and out of our gym clothes, but that was it. No showering. I doubt that I would have done it anyway. We never worked out that hard. I heard that pre-1980s, showering (and totally naked) was a standard thing to do in school, but I think I came up in a more modest "I'm not getting naked around a bunch of other guys" era, so there was never any expectation of showering.

No, we did not. They were there, but nobody used them. Even after games, if there was a dance or something, everyone would go to a friend's house in town to shower and get ready.

No when I was in school, all we had to do was change in and out of gym clothes. Showering wasn't mandatory, so I never did it. I can't remember anyone doing it. I think the showers were mainly used by players of team sports.

It was mandatory where I went to high school but we also all had private stalls. You'd go in and there'd be a little changeroom and then beyond that, the shower stall. Our teachers worked us hard enough to get up a good sweat, so most of us showered. I can't say if the guys changeroom was the same, but the girls changeroom had separate shower stalls - seems to me we had maybe 20 of them and we got enough time to shower as long as you didn't dawdle, though when they combined all three PE classes, you had to be fast. Sometime you could jsut step in, get wet, and be out. The teachers did check and some of the girls would cheat - just wet their towel and show a wet towel. If you had class with them afterward, though, you didn't sit too close.

PE was big in my school, so maybe that's why we usually ended up working up a sweat. I think the only times we didn't sweat as much was during dance.

As someone who works in a middle school, walking into some of those classrooms after PE on a hot day can be REALLY unpleasant as some of these kids have not yet discovered deodorant and when it's hot out... well - there's a reason doors are usually kept open. Some of those boys are SO stinky that it's difficult to be around them. Thankfully the grade eights have figured things out a bit better, though.

It was completely optional but I don't think anyone did it.

I don't remember ever taking showers for PE but we took them for Pool. The showers were private with blockades so I imagine everyone got naked. I did. When it was over, you wrap yourself in a towel and then go change.

No. As others have said, I never got that sweaty and we didn't have enough time. Here's a question. How often did you bring your gym clothes home to be washed? :biggrin:

TSJFan4Ever wrote:

It was mandatory where I went to high school but we also all had private stalls. You'd go in and there'd be a little changeroom and then beyond that, the shower stall. Our teachers worked us hard enough to get up a good sweat, so most of us showered. I can't say if the guys changeroom was the same, but the girls changeroom had separate shower stalls - seems to me we had maybe 20 of them and we got enough time to shower as long as you didn't dawdle, though when they combined all three PE classes, you had to be fast. Sometime you could jsut step in, get wet, and be out. The teachers did check and some of the girls would cheat - just wet their towel and show a wet towel. If you had class with them afterward, though, you didn't sit too close.

PE was big in my school, so maybe that's why we usually ended up working up a sweat. I think the only times we didn't sweat as much was during dance.

As someone who works in a middle school, walking into some of those classrooms after PE on a hot day can be REALLY unpleasant as some of these kids have not yet discovered deodorant and when it's hot out... well - there's a reason doors are usually kept open. Some of those boys are SO stinky that it's difficult to be around them. Thankfully the grade eights have figured things out a bit better, though.

I went to three different high schools in different states. They all had a different approach towards showers in school. In one school, I never saw anybody take a shower. They were there, but nobody used them. It was like that in middle school too. Fortunately, the staff didn't make showering manditory at that age!

But then I transferred to a different school out of state, and it was expected that you shower after PE (although it wasn't manditory, it was "frowned upon" if you appeared not to have showered). So most guys did shower after PE. This was pretty much my first exposure to public nudity. They were open bay showers (with 6 shower heads running the length of two walls) and if anyone wore trunks or underwear in the showers they would have definetely gotten laughed at.

In the last school I went to, showers were manditory for the swimmers and optional for everyone else. Since I didn't swim, and I had PE at the end of the day, I didn't shower at that school. Some of the guys I knew did, but I think most of them wore speedos in the showers.

I will say that ever since basic training, the idea of people being embarrassed to take showers in school is laughable.

No, I never showered after P.E. class. It was optional, but no one did it. It was my Mom's generation (or most of them) that had to do the showering after gym class.

Do you think showering should be mandatory for PE class? Should hygiene be part of physical fitness?